The companies which were once known as poster boys of the Indian startup ecosystem are finding it extremely difficult to retain their top talent. After Flipkart and Snapdeal, Ola has now been witnessing some major top-level management exits in the past couple of weeks. But, the company is trying to supplement their losses by hiring experienced talent from other tech giants.
Today, the company has also parted ways their chief operating officer of offline initiatives Anuj Bhargava, who is recognized for launching prominent initiatives like Ola Play. For those unaware, Ola Play is the ride-hailing giant’s hardware product installed inside cabs to provide users with access to personalized content like music, movies, and temperature control. This development was reported by two anonymous sources but has now been confirmed by the company.
The said departure comes on the heels of a significant number of recent exits from the ride-hailing giant. Last week, Ola witnessed the loss of its Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal and Chief Marketing Officer Raghuvesh Sarup. Pallav Singh, SVP and Head of Ola Money will act as an interim CFO, till the company discovers a suitable candidate for the post. This massive churn also coincided with the appointment of Dr. Badri Raghavan as the chief data scientist at Ola.
In a similar fashion, today’s management-level exit also coincides with the appointment of two new executives at the ride-hailing giant. The company has replaced senior engineers with new appointees from digital payments provider InMobi and life sciences technology company CellWorks.
With regards to the same, former VP of production and infrastructure engineering at InMobi, Sanjay Kharb, has now been appointed as the vice-president of engineering infrastructure at Ola. He will be responsible for increasing the efficiency of the ride-hailing giant’s technology offerings and making it stand at par with its arch-enemy Uber.
On the other hand, Ola has brought onboard Pranav Tiwari, the former chief technology officer at Cellworks Research India Pvt. Ltd. He has been appointed as the vice-president of engineering and will now be responsible for streamlining its supply chain operations and increasing profitability. Tiwari will now oversee the development of solutions for optimal use of vehicles, reduced deviations in its route, and improved customer-driver matching experience.
Talking about the aforementioned appointments, co-founder and chief technology officer Ankit Bhati says,
Ola has consistently invested in technology, consolidating supply chain and building a robust technological backbone, by bringing onboard world class talent. Both Pranav’s and Sanjay’s roles are critical and essential to steer Ola to its next phase of growth.
They bring in relevant and significant experience with large technology businesses and they have an integral role to play in Ola’s aspirations to create innovative solutions that will efficiently solve for the diverse mobility needs of the country.
All of the aforementioned developments come on the heels of Ola mulling the decision to accept fresh funds at a lower valuation. This fresh investment, which could be to the tunes of $500 million, is expected to be led by SoftBank and can happen at a reduced valuation of nearly $3 billion. Ola’s valuation has also been reduced 40 percent by Vanguard Investments. Earlier, the ride-hailing giant was valued at over $5 billion, when it raised capital back in 2015.
